CS371 Blog Post #2 - Tiffany Chan

In class, we watched Burnam’s film, Eighth Grade, where we follow a thirteen-year-old girl in her last week of middle school. I found it interesting to see how prevalent technology, specifically social media, is in teenagers’ lives where most of their communication is done on the internet rather than in person. Rather than spending time with her dad and friends, Kayla goes on her phone instead to entertain herself. The lack of in-person communication in this generation hinders their ability to form meaningful relationships with those around them. Looking at Baym’s seven key concepts for understanding the affordance powers of communication technology, we can see a lot of them being applied to the film, Eighth Grade. Mobility is evident where Kayla is still trying to navigate the world around her while documenting her progress in YouTube videos to show that others similar to her are not alone. The constant need to compare oneself to others, exposing one to inappropriate content, and the freedom to post anything at a young age harm teenagers like Kayla, posing risks to her safety. Photos and images on social media platforms are easily manipulated, showing others how perfect their life is, when in reality this is not true; this can lead to mental health and body image issues. When posting at a young age, the content could be considered to be cringy or controversial, which could lead to bullying or resurfacing of the content in the future even if it is deleted. As such, do you think that thirteen is an appropriate age to start using social media? Why?

Comments

  1. Vanessa BruzzeseOctober 5, 2022 at 12:23 PM

    Hey!
    While I agree that 13 may be young to have a social media presence, I think that now it's inevitable and because of that, it's important for social media to be able to be a safer space for youth. That being said, it's hard to control something like that so in my opinion, I think it's important to remind younger people about the dangers of social media and how it can impact their perception of themselves.

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